The 2025 women’s tennis season could not have had a more fitting finale than what we witnessed in Riyadh last week, as Elena Rybakina rose above a highly-competitive field to win her biggest title since Wimbledon 2022 at the WTA Finals.
The 26-year-old Kazakh went undefeated through the group stage before knocking out fifth-seeded Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals and World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final to pocket $5.235 million – the largest payout in women’s tennis history.
“It's definitely a huge amount and honestly, I didn't think about any of that so much, but of course it’s great and we definitely need to celebrate really well with the team, family and everyone,” said Rybakina on Saturday.
Record prize money aside, this year’s WTA Finals delivered quality matches that perfectly conveyed the story of the season, where a core group of top-ranked women dominated the big stage and breathed new fire into the rivalries between them.
Here’s a look at the eight players that competed in Riyadh and where they stand heading into 2026.
Aryna Sabalenka (World No 1)
It took a flawless serving performance from Rybakina to stop Sabalenka from clinching a maiden WTA Finals crown.
And while she heads into the offseason having secured the year-end No 1 ranking for a second consecutive campaign, Sabalenka will no doubt spend some time thinking about the five finals she lost in 2025.
The 27-year-old Belarusian added four trophies to her resume this year – including a fourth major title at the US Open – and topped the leaderboard with the most wins (63) on the WTA Tour.
But looking ahead, Sabalenka, who is an incredible competitor, will have to find ways to manage her emotions in big matches on a more consistent basis, and stay composed when her opponents start red-lining against her. She’s the world No 1 for a reason and players will keep coming at her. It’s the ultimate sign of respect and she’ll have to be ready for it.
“The good thing is that I'm always there. The bad thing this season, I lost most of the biggest finals I made,” said Sabalenka on Saturday. “So, I guess I'll just sit back in the Maldives, and think back and try to analyse my behaviour, my emotions and think that actually it's been pretty good so far. I just need to get little bit better with myself a little bit more, and hopefully next season I'll improve.”
Iga Swiatek (world No 2)
Swiatek tried to explain why she wasn’t able to make it through the group stage in Riyadh and was stumped.
The Polish star had a perfect opener in the WTA Finals, dropping just three games to Madison Keys. She led by a set in each of her second and third matches but lost both, to Rybakina and Amanda Anisimova, respectively.
As a player renowned for being a ruthless frontrunner, losing from a winning position did not sit well with her.
But when the dust settles, Swiatek can look back and be proud of her season, in which she conquered her least favourite surface – grass – by winning Wimbledon, and significantly improved her serve.
She heads into 2026 hanging on firmly to her No 2 spot and has a shot at completing the career Grand Slam at the Australian Open in January.
Her challenge moving forward would be balancing the aggression she added to her game in the last couple of seasons with her supreme defensive skills, which has always been her bread and butter.
Coco Gauff (World No 3)
Gauff started her title defence in Riyadh with a three-set loss to Pegula that saw the 21-year-old American commit 17 double faults.
With her serve still a work in progress under the guidance of her new biomechanics coach Gavin MacMillan, Gauff is still searching for that flow on what eventually could become a truly devastating shot.
She didn’t advance to the semi-finals in the Saudi capital, but the opening set of her loss to Sabalenka in the group stage showed promising signs of what we can expect from Gauff next season.
“I would like to serve faster,” said Gauff when asked if her impressive serving in the first set against Sabalenka is how she’d like to be serving moving forward.
“But I feel after my first match, I had to take some pace off and just focus on hitting it high, like heavy kicks in the court. But I would like to mix in more flat and mix in more slider wides and things like that.
“With the serve, I feel like it was a good step. But I feel like that type of serving is what I can do when I feel like on an off day, but not how I would like to be on like an A-plus day.
“I just feel like my game is getting better. And I feel like I'm a step in the right direction. And I just want everything to mesh at one point so I can feel completely comfortable on the court.”
Amanda Anisimova (World No 4)
The only WTA Finals debutante in the field, Anisimova had a stellar week in the kingdom, reaching the semi-finals before losing a heartbreaking three-setter to Sabalenka.
The 24-year-old American finished the year playing brave and powerful tennis and can only take confidence from her 2025.
She said she feels like she belongs at the very top of the game and is certainly acting like it. Watch out for Anisimova in Australia!
Elena Rybakina (World No 5)
After months of ups and downs and drama surrounding her coach Stefano Vukov, who was suspended for breaking the WTA Code of Conduct, Rybakina caught fire in the last four weeks of the season, finishing the year on an 11-match winning streak.
She reminded everyone why she was once considered a key member of the WTA’s ‘Big Three’, alongside Sabalenka and Swiatek, and has moved back up to No 5 in the world.
If she keeps serving the way she did in Riyadh, and carry the confidence and momentum forward, she’ll be a top major contender in 2026.
Jessica Pegula (World No 6)
Some of the best matches of the week in Riyadh all featured Pegula.
The 31-year-old American is a master tactician and manages to turn any contest into a chess match.
She posted wins over each of the top three – Sabalenka, Swiatek and Gauff – this season and went down swinging against Rybakina in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals.
She sounds hungrier than ever to keep making improvements to her game and is expected to remain a consistent presence in the latter stages at all the big events.
Madison Keys (World No 7)
A virus hampered Keys’ performance in Riyadh, and the two-month break she took prior to the tournament to nurse an adductor injury didn’t help either.
But despite that, Keys put up a great fight against Anisimova in her second match before opting out of her third due to illness.
After starting the year with a title triumph at the Australian Open, Keys struggled to keep the momentum throughout her campaign.
She’ll head to Melbourne as the defending champion in January and is already thinking of ways to manage the pressure there.
“I think the biggest thing is getting to the point where it's not about not feeling the pressure, but knowing how to navigate through it,” she said in Riyadh.
Jasmine Paolini (World No 8)
Another player struck with illness last week, Paolini won just one of her six matches across singles and doubles at the WTA Finals.
It was bad luck for the Italian who spent five weeks in China prior to the event – a stretch that saw her guide her country to the Billie Jean King Cup title in Shenzhen, as well as make the quarters in Beijing, and the semis in Wuhan and Ningbo.
Paolini looked exhausted in Riyadh and needs a proper rest.
But once she’s got some R&R, she’ll start her preseason training knowing she’s firmly established herself among the top eight over the past two years and can keep up with the best of them on tour.
